The stalk of the flowers of the Lily in the above photographs are hollow. Yet, I have not come across any one of them broken even during the strong wind or heavy downpour of rain. It is a mystery to say the least!
The cylindrical stem which is taller than one foot with flowers, often four, stand erect for about a week, till the flowers fold up and appear to droop. The flowers drop off first, then the stalk falls flat on the ground just above the soil without the stalk being broken. The cylindrical stem of 1.5 cam in girth with about 2 mm thickness of the stalk endure the wind and dry weather even in summer.
These flowers are carried in such a slender and fragile stalk. Its strength and enduring ability is in spite of it being hollow.
This unusual strength to bear the flowers for a week or more has surprised me often. The scores of the photographs I have, ever since we had the plants along the hedge of our garden in the last 12 years, do not show the broken stalk except occasionally!
I travel back to my own history of last forty five years, during my association with hundreds of families who have had developmentally challenged children to take care of. It was only exceptional to come across a family who felt broken or too heavy to carry on ! The inner strength and resolve to live above the weariness and demands that came upon them was a common feature!
I remember trying times and stressful periods. On such occasions, someone in a surprising manner offered an olive branch to bring cheer and hope.
It is common for senior citizens to feel uncertain about their future and hence feel preoccupied with the unknown.
I find returning to read a passage, that brings immense comfort hope in such situations:
"For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?. Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?. Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his own life span?...Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin....." ! (Matt 6:25-26, from the New Testament of the Bible).
The circumstances or demands that are upon us might not change, but we receive an inner grace to carry on knowing that, 'it is when we are weak, we are strong', because 'that is when God's full giving has just begun'!
The stalk of a lily plant that bears the flowers appears slender and weak, but it carries the flowers till the flowers shall last.
It is this consciousness that, 'it is in God we live, move and have our being', which enables us to live each day in purpose and hope!
M.C.Mathew ( text and photo)
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